15 Best Things to Do in Saarbrücken (Germany)

A hair’s breadth from the French border in Southwestern Germany, Saarbrücken mixes industrial history with the splendour of the Counts and Princes of Nassau-Saarbrücken who ruled the region for centuries.

Two people more than any left their mark on Saarbrücken, 18th-century Prince of Nassau-Saarbrücken, William Henry, and his architect Friedrich Joachim Stengel. For three decades the pair remodelled Saarbrücken into a Baroque city, building palaces, churches, squares and fountains.

One of most absorbing ensembles is Ludwigsplatz, where eight palaces face the sublime Ludwigskirche. Around Saarbrücken Castle there’s much to keep you occupied, as over the last two decades a system of tunnels and underground chambers has been excavated and opened as part of the Saar Historical Museum.

Let’s have a look at the best things to do in Saarbrücken:

1. Ludwigskirche

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Ludwigskirche

In the 1760s Friedrich Joachim Stengel was commissioned by William Henry, Prince of Nassau-Saarbrücken to build not just this church but the surrounding square as well, all as a single harmonious work.

The result is one of the high points of German Baroque art, as well as one of Germany’s standout Protestant churches.

Outside you’ll find statues of the four evangelists in the niches, while on the balustrades are 28 figures among them prophets, apostles and other figures from the bible.

The interior is completely white and adorned with dainty stuccowork, with galleries on four sides held up by fine caryatids.

Stengel was involved in the design of the palaces around the church (eight remain today), right down to the door handles.

Drop by on Thursdays and Saturdays for the market.

2. Basilica of St. John the Baptist

Stengel was also responsible for another stunning Baroque church built in the mid-1750s for the city’s growing catholic congregation.

The church was partly funded by French King Louis XV and a collection was made in Rome by Pope Benedict XIV. Before you enter, you have to inspect the bronze doors, which show scenes from the life of St John the Baptist and were remade in 1986 by the local artist Ernst Alt after they were damaged in the war.

The interior was restored to its original Baroque decor in the 1970s.

A couple of things you have to take in are the intricate pulpit dating to 1764 and the four confessionals from 1789, each with famous repentant sinners: King David, Mary Magdalene, Saint Peter and the thief on the cross.

4. Saar Historical Museum

On ground level there’s a long narrow building from 1988 with a barrel roof, and this conceals a small world of historic underground chambers and tunnels that were excavated in the 1990s and 2000s.

In the galleries on the upper two floors you can take a trip through the last 300 years of the Saarland through its art, design and everyday items.

And then 14 metres below the Schlossplatz you’ll descend into Saar’s Medieval and Early Modern history, venturing through sections of the Medieval castle and a Renaissance casemate constructed in the 1560s.

5. Völklingen Ironworks

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Völklingen Ironworks

East of Saarbrücken a few kilometres down the Saar is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Völklingen Ironworks was established in 1873 and shut down in 1986, and is the only smelting works built in the 19th century to have made it to the present.

The facility is now an industrial monument and a science museum.

The Ferrodom on the ground floor of the Möllerhalle warehouse is all about the history and science of iron processing, and kids can use video microscopes to inspect the surfaces of iron and steel, and experiment with magnetism.

There’s also a lot of fun to be had on the site’s six-kilometre trail, encountering the epic machinery that once processed millions of tons of ore.

See the six massive blast furnaces in the blasting hall, and head up to the 30-metre-high charging platform.

9. Rathaus St Johann

One head-turning landmark is the town hall, which is newer than it looks and has a Gothic Revival design from 1900. The facade is busy with traceried windows, pinnacles, and masses of other ornamentation.

The central tower is 54 metres high and as well as Saarbrücken’s coat of arms has a clock and carillon that chimes every day at 15:15 and 19:19. Further down you can make out a row of statues, and these represent the different trades in the city at the turn of the 20th century.

There’s a miner, an iron/steelworker, a farmer, a brewer, a merchant and a tanner.

Also here is a statue of St George slaying the dragon, presumably to symbolise the fight against evil.